Reply #43: minor correction: the "12-year-old girl" was a bit of myth-making by alan lomax.

[Hannah Bell]

reece was born in 1900.

jh blair, named in the song, was a harlan county sheriff in the 20's-30s, & this is the period when the events in the song happened.

reece was in her late twenties/early 30s & married when she wrote the song, & her husband was a labor organizer.

here she explains for herself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYr09q9dHSo&NR=1

http://labornotes.org/node/1385

http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/egd_02/egd_02_00542.html.